Wednesday, December 2, 2015

KLM has launched another one of their amazing Business Class sales for
travel from Canada to Europe and beyond! This offer is pretty great
although about $200 more than the last time we saw the sale. Still
getting to Europe in Business Class for as little as $2699 all in is
something to write home about or present as a gift under the Christmas
Tree! Oh and if you just happen to fly on the KLM flight out of Edmonton
instead of YYC before the end of February you can score 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue miles!
(See here for details on the YEG offer)

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

If you find yourself at YYC in the terminal tonight don't be alarmed if you hear gunshots!

"Calgary, AB – The Calgary Airport Authority, and key airport and emergency response agencies will be conducting a security training exercise at Calgary International Airport (YYC) on Wednesday, November 4 from 9 p.m. until approximately midnight.

The exercise will take place within the terminal building, in an isolated area; however, passengers arriving or departing YYC during this time may hear unusual noises, including simulated gunfire. Emergency agencies will be arriving to the terminal at this time to respond to the mock scenario. There will also be a number of volunteers who will be in makeup with simulated injuries within the terminal building during this period.

The safety and security of all those who visit and work at Calgary International Airport is the Authority’s number one priority and exercises of this nature are an important part of the airport emergency preparedness program. It ensures all partners have the opportunity to practice their extensive emergency response plans."

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Back in July the Rewards Canada family took a vacation to San Francisco.
This was quite a last minute decision on our part, it was late July and
we really wanted to get away before our busy August. It was Sunday
night and could travel later that week. Without going into all the
search details on places we haven't been and within a few hours of home
seeing we only had 3 full days we decided on San Francisco. The Rewards
Canada family had never set foot in San Francisco unless you include the
airport for connecting! This was an ideal location seeing that we had
done Los Angeles (three times) Palm Springs and San Diego in the
previous 14 months or so. Yes this is the power of miles and points,
many of those trips were funded in part with loyalty programs!

Seeing that we only had three full days we wanted to ensure that we got
to SFO in a short amount of time so it was decided that we would fly on
WestJet's direct flights so we could use up some our WestJet dollars. As
we were redeeming WestJet Dollars from multiple accounts I actually
had to call in to WestJet to book the flights as you cannot redeem from
multiple accounts online at the same time. The process was really simple
as I just had to supply our WestJet Rewards numbers and told the agent
we wanted to use our dollars for the flights. The cash portion was put
on my Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard so we could also utilize Club
Rewards points for a portion of the costs to make what would be an
expensive flight purchase more reasonable.

WestJet Rewards redemption

Diners Club Club Rewards redemption

What initially began with flights costing $3,014.36 ended up only
costing us $1,824.36. A great example of 'flexible' reward programs like
WestJet Rewards and Diners Club Club Rewards. You don't have to wait
until you have the full amount of points or miles. WestJet does require a
balance of $25 to redeem if you don't hold one of their RBC MasterCards
and that is why you only see three WestJet redemptions for the four of
us travelling as my older daughter only had $24 in her account at the
time of booking. You can also see however that we earned WestJet Dollars
on the cash portion of the tickets which explains why my youngest
daughter actually earned more on her flights than my wife or I as she
redeemed less dollars. Also you may see that our Diners Club redemption
was actually done nearly two months after the trip. Again another bonus
of flexible credit card programs, you can continue to earn points on
purchases and use them towards a past purchase. Depending on the card
you carry you have anywhere from 90 days to 12 months after the charge
is posted to use your points or miles!

Could we have utilized another reward program? Well I looked at using
Aeroplan miles and all options required a connection with a lot longer
travel time than the direct WestJet flights. With only 3 full days in
San Francisco and this being a vacation, not business, we wanted to
ensure we had the most time possible in SFO so the decision was made to
go with the direct flights and enjoy more time in the Golden Gate city
on the actual travel days.

Unfortunately the Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard is not available
for new applications but you could use some of the following cards to do
the same type of partial (or full) redemption towards the travel
charge:

Monday, September 28, 2015

Just for the month of April you can experience flying on Air Canada's newest aircraft, the Boeing 787-9 between Calgary and Frankfurt. According to airlineroute.net the new planes will be on Calgary and Toronto to Frankfurt for April. This will be a great time to try the plane out! Might have to look at doing a family trip to Europe in April just to try it out and also burn some Aeroplan miles.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Air Canada has launched a massive new bonus Aeroplan mile event for
flights across the globe. Whether you are flying within Canada, to the
U.S., Europe or Asia there is a good chance you can earn extra miles on
those Air Canada flights.

Offer DetailsEarn up to 10,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select Air Canada flights within Canada, to the U.S., Europe or Asia. Register Online (Registration is required) Register and book by Nov 15 for travel until Dec 13, 15

Earn 50% Bonus Aeroplan Miles per round-trip on select flights between Canada and the USA in Economy Class. Calgary flights are Houston
Earn Double Aeroplan Miles per round-trip on select flights between Canada and the USA in Business Class and Premium rouge. Calgary flights are Las Vegas

Earn 5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles per round-trip on select flights between Canada and Europe in Economy Class. Calgary flights are Frankfurt, London
Earn 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles per round-trip on select flights between Canada and Europe in Business Class, Premium Economy and Premium rouge. Calgary flights are Frankfurt, London

Earn 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles per round-trip on select flights between Canada and Asia in Tango or Flex fares. Calgary flights are Tokyo
Earn 10,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles per round-trip on select flights between Canada and Asia in Business Class, Premium Economy, Premium rouge and Latitude. Calgary flights are Tokyo

Monday, September 14, 2015

Earlier this year WestJet announced they will start flying to London
Gatwick in 2016 with their new 767s. What they didn't reveal is which
cities in Canada they would fly from. Thanks to Airlineroute.net
we now know they are making an aggressive launch by serving LGW from 6
cities. WestJet have not revealed this themselves although it looks like
they will be doing so tomorrow as they have press conferences scheduled
in all 6 cities.

Based on this schedule it looks like WestJet will have at least three of
their 767's in service by the time the routes launch as the YVR, YYC,
and YYZ flights all depart on the same day within 15 minutes of each
other. The St. John's flight starting the next day will operate with a
737.
Although it is only one flight per week I'm sure Winnipeggers are happy
to see they get London service!! All of the other cities currently get
year round or seasonal London service from other airlines. Still to
launch from 6 cities to London Gatwick it sure looks like WestJet wants
to take a bite out of the competition!

Monday, August 10, 2015

Emirates may not fly to any cities in Western Canada but they have
agreements with WestJet and Alaska Airlines to bring connecting
passengers out of the west to the gateway cities. This promotion is for
the latter, flying on Alaska Airlines out of Western Canada and
connecting to Emirates' flights out of Seattle you can save up to
US$1,000 on these flights not to mention you can earn up to Triple
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles! The savings are as follows: $1,000
off all First Class fares, $500 off select Business Class fares and $50
off all Economy Class fares. Book online at emirates.com with promo code ALASKA5
to take advantage of this deal.

Bonus Miles Offer details:Earn
up to Triple Mileage Plan Miles when you fly Emirates from the U.S..
Earn Triple Miles when you fly in First Class, or Double Miles
when you fly Business or Economy Class non-stop between Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, New
York-JFK, San Francisco, Seattle, or Washington D.C. and Dubai, plus
onward connecting Emirates flights from Dubai. Register Online (Registration is required) then book online at emirates.com with promo code ALASKA5
to save $1000 on First Class fares, $500 on Business Class fares or $50
on Economy Class fares.

Here is an excerpt from the terms of the promotion that mention the offer of flying out of Western Canada:When you book a round-trip flight using promotional code ALASKA5
in the search box on this page, you can fly Emirates and save $1,000
off all First Class fares, $500 off select Business Class fares and $50
off all Economy Class fares.......Book by September 15, 2015 to take advantage of this incredible offer. Travel available through February 28, 2016.*US
gateways include Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD) Dallas (DFW), Houston
(IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle
(SEA), Washington D.C. (IAD) and Orlando (MCO) and the following
interior Canadian cities for travel over (SEA) only - they are YVR
(Vancouver), YEG (Edmonton), YYC (Calgary), YYJ (Victoria) and YLW
(Kelowna).

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

British Airways has delayed the return of their 787 for the Calgary - London Heathrow route until December 5th. The daily service will continue with 767 service until that date. (Source airlineroute.net)

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Yet another summertime bonus for flying on Air Canada! So far we've
seen a London bonus, a biz class within Canada bonus and now this bonus
for almost all of Air Canada's Europe routes and Vancouver to Osaka

Offer Details Earn up to 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for
round-trip flights to select destinations in Europe and to Osaka. Book
with Air Canada in a Tango, Flex, Latitude or Premium Economy fare, or
with Air Canada rougeTM in a Tango, Flex, Latitude or Premium rouge
fare.Register Online (Registration is required) Register and book by Jul 31 for travel until Sep 30, 15

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Air Canada launched a new premium class bonus offer today for travel
solely within Canada. The offer is for Double Aeroplan Miles for each
round-trip or two one-way flight segments in Business Class or Premium
rouge. The bonus is strictly on flight miles and does not double the
class of service or Altitude bonus. Simply register and book between
today and July 19 for travel until September 30th.

Offer Details
Double Aeroplan Miles for each round-trip or two one-way flight segments within Canada. To be
eligible, book a Business Class fare with Air Canada, or a Premium rouge
fare with Air Canada rouge. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Register and book by Jul 19 for travel until Sep 30, 15

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

(This is a duplicate of a post from my Rewards Canada site that went up last week as we got exclusive early access to it)

If you follow Rewards Canada on Instagram
we mentioned sometime ago after a meeting with WestJet Rewards that an
exciting promotion will be coming up. We are proud to pass along
exclusive advance notice of that promotion that you can start taking
advantage of right away! In fact WestJet will not be promoting this
offer to their membership base until June 9th! Just another perk of
being a Rewards Canada reader you'll get an extra week of reaping the
rewards if your travels take you to or through any of these cities! As
you can see from the offer details all you really need to is to complete
one round trip to/from any of the three cities and you'll earn a bonus.
Add in more flights and you'll earn more dollars. Flying on WestJet's
new Halifax-Glasgow route? This bonus can be yours too!

Offer Details
Earn up to $150 Bonus Westjet dollars when you travel to or from Abbotsford, Halifax or Hamilton on WestJet. Full details and online registration (Registration is required) Register and book by Aug 31 for travel until Oct 28, 15

Fly 2 flights to or from these 3 cities and earn $25 WestJet dollars
Fly 4 flights to or from these 3 cities and earn an additional $50 WestJet dollars
Fly 6 flights to or from these 3 cities and earn an additional $75 WestJet dollars

The more you fly, the more you earn! Be sure to join WestJet Rewards
then simply register for the promotion, book your flights, add your
WestJet ID to your bookings and you're ready to go.
To register for this promotion, please enter your 9-digit WestJet ID.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Air Canada has taken note of the current oneworld Transatlantic bonus
offers from AA, BA (See last weeks posts for the AA/BA offers), and Finnair and have released their own bonus. They
decided not to match the oneworld Airlines offer of the U.K. and Europe
rather only focus on the U.K. but have also upped the ante on Business
Class fares by offering up to 120,000 bonus miles compared to oneworld
airlines 115,000 miles while the premium and full fare economy offer is
matched with a maximum of 30,000 bonus miles although Air Canada's is
for flex fare and higher which at times is not full fare economy like
required in the oneworld offers. Finally the AC offer also runs a full month
longer than the oneworld offer (although registration and booking must
be completed by the same date of August 7).

Offer Details
Earn up to 120,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you fly Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge between Canada and the UK. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Register and book by Aug 7 for travel until Sep 6, 2015

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Just like the British Airways offer we posted yesteday, American Airlines has also put out a Transatlantic
premium class bonus. This one awards miles exactly like the BA offer but
since AA hasn't had a devaluation like BA did in April, the increased bonus
when compared to last summers offer is just icing on the cake for
AAdvantage members! For us Calgarians your direct non stop option is on BA but you can always connect to BA in Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal or Finnair out of Toronto or AA/US/BA/Finnair/Iberia/OpenSkies options if you want to connect via the U.S.

Offer DetailsEarn up to 115,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you fly round-trip between the U.S., Canada or
Mexico and Europe on First Class, Business Class or select full-fare
Economy Class fares* on American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair,
Iberia, OpenSkies or US Airways. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) May 7 - Aug 7, 15

Can't make use of this offer? Be sure to visit Rewards Canada's AAdvantage Bonus Miles page for many more bonus opportunities!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

British Airways and American Airlines launched new Transatlantic premium
class flights (the American offer will come later on the
blog) More lucrative than last summer's
offer that maxed out at 100,000 bonus after four flights (20,000 in
Prem. Econ.) Then again last summer BA Avios hadn't been devalued yet
so perhaps this larger bonus is to appease those who may have become
disenchanted with the changes that came in on April 28. Over all this
offer will award up to 115,000 bonus Avios for First and Business Class
or 30,000 bonus Avios for Premium Economy and Full Fare Economy. You can earn this bonus on BA's direct flights out of Calgary but you also have options to fly BA out of Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal or Finnair out of Toronto. You can always
earn the bonus if you connect via the U.S. with any of the airlines
listed below.

Offer Details
Earn up to 115,000 Bonus Avios when you fly on qualifying British Airways, American Airlines, Finnair, Iberia,
OpenSkies or US Airways operated and marketed non-stop flights to the UK
or Europe from North America. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) May 7 - Aug 7, 15

Can't make use of this offer? Be sure to visit Rewards Canada's Executive Club Bonus Avios page for many more bonus opportunities!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

This is a copy and paste of a post I put up on the Rewards Canada blog last week but it fits in perfectly here as I used a Calgary as an example of how this can be used to save some money on flights like this. Now you had to be an Avianca LifeMiles member prior to this promotion starting so if you aren't you can't take advantage of it this time. However I would recommend joining the program as their buy miles offer of up to a 100% does come around a few times per year. Granted not as good as the 120% offer being run now but still a very viable method to save you some money on future travel. Here is the post:

For a few years Avianca LifeMiles had been famous for selling
their miles with a 100% bonus every few months. That recurring offer
seem to dwindle towards the latter half of 2014 but now it is back with
an extra bonus! If you live in countries outside of Guatemala, El
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, United
States and Colombia you'll actually get a 120% bonus! Hooray for us Canadians as we get the full 120%!

If you have followed us
for sometime you'll know this is a decent option to get Star Alliance
flights on the cheap especially in business class. However Avianca
announced back on September 30th the price to buy miles will go
up 10% and had changes to their award chart on October 15th which were a
devaluation. So what should you do? If you
know that you can make your travel work and get the LifeMiles
redemption(s) of your choice go ahead and buy the miles however I
wouldn't buy them if you don't think you'll use them over then 3-6
months just in case another award chart devaluation comes along.

For us, the
miles cost US 1.5 cents a piece +GST. This brings the price down to
levels prior
to September 30th, 2014. It appears that those who are eligible for the
extra 20% can only buy 68,000 miles (+81,600 bonus miles) for a total of
149,600 miles. However you don't have to buy that many miles. For 78,000
miles you can get a one-way business class ticket to North Asia (Japan,
China, Korea etc) from Canada depending on availability. With the bonus
this means you only have to buy 36,000 miles for US$1,188 (lets say
$1500 Canadian)

Here is a great example of how this bonus can be utilized for some huge savings!

Air Canada Business Class One-way from Calgary to Tokyo costs $5494.41 all in

Same ticket using Avianca LifeMiles with this promotion and taxes
costs around $1,600 (and its only 75,000 miles even though their reward
chart shows 78,000 miles!)

That's a saving of over $3,800!

Another decent feature of LifeMiles is their Cash + Part Miles option but that
was devalued over a year ago. This option
only requires that you have 40% of the points for a reward (so buy 40%
during this 100% bonus period) and then you can buy the rest of the
miles (the other 60%) at about 1.56 cents per mile (used to be 1.25
cents!). So if you get the 20% bonus with the current promo you are
better off buying all the miles but if you only qualify for the 100%
bonus where the miles cost you 1.65 cents you may want to go with the
Cash+miles options

Some things to consider with the buy miles option before you pull
the trigger is that their call center tends to be on the less helpful
side so you are better off booking award tickets online which also means
you are limited to the powers of that source, mixed class awards are
not allowed unless you book each award ticket as separate one way
flights and they have devalued the program without notice in the past so
only buy these miles if you think you will use them in the next short
while

Offer details
Earn up to 120% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy LifeMiles online. You must be a LifeMiles member as of May 4 to purchase. Full details Until May 29, 15

Monday, May 11, 2015

You may have noticed that as of late last week I started posting again to IFlyCalgary! Its been nearly three years since the last post and lots has happened since then. IFlyCalgary was and is my hobby site, and I started it when Rewards Canada and FrequentFlyerBonuses.com were experiencing phenomenal growth which continues to this day. Those two sites coupled with work in the Oil & Gas Industry and a family meant limited time and resources could be put towards to IFlyCalgary.

Now, fast forward to 2015 where I have finished with Oil & Gas (in June 2014) and am now focused 100% on the loyalty industry in both B2C (Rewards Canada, FFB, FFB UK) and B2B roles (speaking at loyalty conferences, media work and loyalty promotion development). This loyalty work still takes up more time than I have however I figured there is a lot of content I curate on my other sites that could easily be placed on IFlyCalgary and I feel now is the right time to start updating again. I'm not sure what direction it will take but as with any blog it will evolve over time and we'll see what happens.

Good news is that over the last few years I have established partnerships and relationships with
many companies with whom I have done and will do future exclusive
promotions that I think would be great to pass on to IFlyCalgary readers. Some of these companies include
WestJet, Emirates, Aeroplan, American Express and quite a few others. Heck even those not flying could benefit as we ran an exclusive promo with Canalta Hotels last year! Emirates keeps telling me they are itching to grow their business out of Western Canada using their Alaska Airlines partnership (hence their current promo for Western Canada) so maybe I can work something out for IFlyCalgary readers!

If you read Rewards Canada you may find quite a bit of duplication as much of what goes onto Rewards Canada is relevant to us Calgarians as well but when I take those RC posts I'll usually modify them to be Calgary specific and may even add in a few more tips.

As always I love to hear feedback, suggestions, corrections and more. Heck if you feel like you can contribute I am even open to having guest contributors!

Friday, May 8, 2015

(Calgary, AB) - The Calgary Airport Authority is pleased to welcome Edelweiss Air, who will introduce new non-stop seasonal service from Calgary International Airport (YYC) to Zurich in 2016. The new service will operate twice-weekly from June to September with an Airbus 330 and will add nearly 600 seats a week into the Calgary market, which will bring in thousands of European visitors to Alberta, one of Canada’s most pristine tourism destinations. The new service comes as a result of close cooperation with YYC’s tourism partners such as the Government of Alberta, Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary and Banff and Lake Louise Tourism, and aligns YYC’s strategic plan to grow passenger services, with our partners’ strategies to diversifying Alberta’s economy by growing tourism in the province.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Edelweiss Air back to Calgary with their new non-stop service to Zurich Airport, Switzerland’s largest hub,” said Stephan Poirier, Senior Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer for The Calgary Airport Authority. “We are committed to growing tourism in Alberta and this new link will bring millions of tourism dollars to our province. Today’s announcement is a reflection of our commitment to growing YYC as an airline hub, strengthening our position as an economic leader and adding to the already impressive list of contributions YYC has made to the economy."

Edelweiss Air is a Swiss leisure carrier; its sister operator is Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), the principal hub airline at Zurich Airport. Edelweiss formerly operated out of Calgary until 2012 and this is currently its second Canadian destination. In addition to being Switzerland’s leading leisure airline, Edelweiss offers customers a number of different offerings such as fully flat-bed business class seating, along with premium entertain options in its Economy Max and Economy Class. The announcement coincides with its 20 year anniversary as it celebrates with major expansion plans.

The twice-weekly summer schedule for Edelweiss will be as follows:

ThursdaysArrival from Zurich to YYC at 3 p.m.Departures from YYC to Zurich at 4:40 p.m. with an Airbus 330-200 (275 seats)

SundaysArrival from Zurich to YYC at 4 p.m.Departures at 5:50 p.m. with an Airbus 330-300 (315 seats)

ABOUT THE CALGARY AIRPORT AUTHORITY

The Calgary Airport Authority is a not-for-profit organization incorporated under the Regional Airports Authorities Act of Alberta. The Calgary Airport Authority is responsible for the management, operation and development of Calgary International (YYC) and Springbank (YBW) Airports. YYC is an important economic engine for the city, region and province, generating over $8 billion per annum in economic activity.